Graeff’s Leaf-curling Spider

Most leaf curlers are orb-weaving spiders that use a curled leaf for shelter. Some species position their curled leaf in a shrub close by their web. After spinning its orb web, Phonognatha graeffei hauls up a leaf, positions it near the centre of its web, curls it up, and binds it shut with silk.

Curled leaf positioned in the centre of a web - Bunyip State Park

The spider waits inside the leaf with its feet attached to some strands of its web, waiting for the tell-tale vibrations of a trapped insect. It uses venom to help subdue its prey before consuming it.

Close up of the feet attached to the web - Drouin garden

Some female leaf curlers will lay their eggs inside a separate curled leaf positioned in a bush nearby.

Phonognatha graeffei sans leaf - Golden Whistler Reserve Drouin

Most members of the genus are endemic to Australia. They can often be found in home gardens where they are an asset, keeping some pest insects under control. And, the spider itself is part of the food web of other animals. Leaf curlers in the garden, particularly appreciate minimal use of pesticide sprays – for obvious reasons.

 

Puffballs

Puffball fungi are a class of fungi that do not have a ‘mushroom’-shaped cap with gills or pores, or stems. Puffball fruiting bodies are generally spherical or pear-shaped. Their spores are formed and contained within the body of the fruit. As the fruit matures, the ‘puffball’ either splits open to expose the spores, or a small vent is formed in the top of the ‘ball’ through which the spores are expelled when the fruit is nudged by an animal, or a raindrop, etc. (YouTube video link).

 Collared Earthstar - Earthstars are fairly common in our native forest reserves where they grow in the leaf litter on the ground.

Earthstar Puffball - Rokeby Rail Trail

As the fruit develops, the outer skin hardens and when conditions are right, splits radially into a star pattern. This can take just a few minutes to happen, or as long as 3-4 hours.

 Pear-shaped Puffball - Shaped like an inverted pear, these puffballs grow on dead wood, old stumps, etc.

Pear-shaped Puffball - Nangara Reserve Jindivick

Pear-shaped Puffballs: Lycoperdon pyriforme – lyco = wolf, perdon = flatulence/pardon (I’ll let your imaginations work that out – refer to the video link above for a clue – a mycologist with a sense of humour?) and pyriforme = pear-shaped.

 Horse Dung Fungus - Pisolithus arhizus while not a ‘puff’ball in the true sense of the word, they are an ally in the sense that their spores are manufactured and stored inside the rounded body of the fruit. They are often found growing in hard gravel surfaces on the sides of roads and tracks.

Horse Dung Fungus - Golden Whistler Reserve Drouin

As the fruit matures, the outer layers begin to disintegrate and the top spores are exposed to the atmosphere, ready for distribution by wind, rain, or animals.

So much to learn!

  

Stinkhorns

Stinkhorns are a bizarre group of fungi that have strong, unpleasant odours. They produce a spore mass that smell of rotting flesh or sewage to attract flies and other insects. The flies feed on the spore mass and so act as a vector for the spread of the fungus.

The Anemone Stinkhorn, Aseroe rubra, is normally found in alpine grassland or woodland habitat or other places in rich soils. This one was in some woodchip mulch in a garden bed outside the Drouin Library (thanks Yola).

The foul-smelling spore mass is the dark material on top of the disc.

The Anemone Stinkhorn can grow to a height of 100mm with the divided arms radiating to 30-40mm. Locally they can be quite common yet seem to be restricted to the south-east corner of the continent.

 Phallus rubicundus, another member of the Stinkhorn family, has a spore mass that can vary in colour.

These odd shapes are the mature body of the fungus. They start out as gelatinous egg-shaped forms attached to the mycelium within the substrate.

Australasian Grebe

All grebes belong to the Podicipedidae family: podex/podicis = anus/vent, and pedis/pes = foot; hence Grebes are ‘bumfoot’ birds. Well, not quite. The description refers to how their feet are set way back on their bodies. This gives grebes the maximum power for swimming and diving – perhaps the ‘outboard motor’ bird would be more apt.

The Australasian Grebe is Tachybaptus novaehollandiae: Tachys = fast, bapto = dip, novaehollandiae = New Holland, the old name for Australia, and so we get ‘the Australian fast dipper’.

Australasian Grebes usually tend to prefer smaller, freshwater bodies such as farm dams, wetlands, sewerage ponds, etc. Their close cousin, the Hoary-headed Grebe (the two are often seen together) seems to opt for more open waters, fresh and saline.

The Australasian Grebe feeds on small fish and crustaceans, water snails and insects. They get their diet by diving to a depth of 2 or 3 metres, or by chasing their prey on the surface. Australasian Grebes are regarded as very poor fliers. If they are disturbed by an intruding photographer, they often dive and resurface several metres away rather than swim or fly to shelter.

It is often reported that Australasian Grebes eat their own feathers, even feeding them to their young. Although not proven, it is thought to be a means of lining their stomachs to prevent sharp bones entering their intestines.

Aussie grebes often build their nests on an island of floating vegetation. The parents are sometimes known to carry their young on their backs – I haven’t lived long enough yet to see this.

And finally, Australasian Grebes have two distinct phases of plumage. All images on this page are of T.novaehollandiae  in the breeding phase. When non-breeding, Australasian Grebes are very similar to their hoary-headed relative.

Olive-backed Oriole

The Olive-backed Oriole inhabits eucalypt woodlands up and down the eastern seaboard of Australia. In this district, the bird is a spring-summer migrant – many Gippsland birdwatchers nominate the call of their first Oriole for the season as the harbinger of spring.

The bird survey team of the Friends of Drouin’s Trees was a little surprised to see and hear an Oriole in Golden Whistler Reserve Drouin recently. We mostly agreed it/they should have headed back north by now. Nice to record it as the surveyors hadn’t ticked one for some time.

The Olive-backed Oriole is principally a fruit-eater but also takes insects from the canopy foliage and bark, particularly of eucalypts.

Other names for the bird include: Green Grackle, Australian Oriole, Green Thrush, Striated Roller and more. Oriolus sagittatus: oriolus = golden (?), and sagittatus = arrow (for the arrow-like streaks) hence another old name – ‘Arrowed Golden Bird’.

Olive-backed Orioles build a cup/basket-shaped nest of bark which they suspend by the rim from a thin fork in the outer foliage.

Garden Mantis

The Garden Mantis, or more correctly, False Garden Mantis, Pseudomantis albofimbriata, is a member of the mantis family of which there are over 2,000 species worldwide. They have triangular-shaped heads, long bodies and extra-long forelegs often held in a ‘praying’ position – hence the Praying Mantis.

Pseudomantis albofimbriata can be either brown or green. They use their long forelegs to capture their prey – flies, bees, moths, butterflies, etc., which they locate with their excellent eyesight and flexible head.

Mantises themselves are preyed upon by birds, lizards, frogs, large spiders, etc. – it’s a jungle out there! There are some wonderful videos explaining mantis behaviour – ‘Kung Fu Mantis vs Jumping Spider’, BBC Earth. Wikipedia has an excellent mantis page that explains their etymology, anatomy, reproductive behaviour, sexual cannibalism, mythology and much more.

This individual was present on a hakea shrub in our garden recently.

 

Bee-fly (#2)

A couple of years back I posted about a bee-fly I came across at the Bunyip Sanctuary.

This is another bee-fly species – Villa genus, perhaps Villa cingulata – that appeared in my back garden a month or two ago.

There are over 5000 species of bee-flies, Bombliidae family, worldwide. Australia has around 100 described species but many more exist. Various references state there are about 270 Villa species, found on all continents except Antarctica.

Villa cingulata often rests on the ground as this one was doing, letting me click away. Unlike the bee-fly in the earlier post, this one has a short proboscis which it can tuck away when at rest.

Villa genus is a brood parasite of wasps and solitary bees. Before distributing her eggs, the female Villa coats them with sand she has collected in a dedicated chamber in her abdomen to make them more aerodynamic. She then hovers just above the unsuspecting host’s nest and flicks her eggs within the vicinity of the entrance (colloquially, she is called a ‘bomber fly’). The host wasp or bee inadvertently carries the Villa eggs into her nest and ultimately rears the Villa larvae.

Despite their ‘parasitic’ lifestyle, bee-flies are efficient pollinators, particularly of native plants. They may look like bees, perhaps to deter predation, but they are harmless to humans.

Welcome in my garden!